Birthday Party

I am prepping for my Celebrate Recovery meeting tonight. This is a group dealing with our “hurts, habits, and hang-ups”.  There are over 20,000 such groups in meetings all over the world. It has a specific structure and is very helpful. Two years ago, I went through the process as training for leadership. We have met as this group for about a year now.  To finish the materials, we will continue into the winter months, so about a year and a half overall. These ladies have become dear friends through our weekly meetings.

One of them has a birthday today. It slipped out when she and I were talking individually last week.  So I have tried to do things that will make this week’s meeting special. However, prep for something like this, here, is interesting. I could order a cake, but most of us do not really enjoy commercially baked goods here. My best comparison is sawdust, although the results are better than they were 30 years ago. Baked goods have just not been present long term in the culture, with no ovens in the homes. I do have a small toaster oven. Those of you who have used such an item, know that they do not necessarily thoroughly bake cakes or bread. But we have discovered that cupcakes work pretty well. Then, sometimes the ingredients are challenging, like baking powder (although I do have some I brought from the US) or powdered sugar, so I often make variations. Today it is small cheesecake cupcakes with an Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake as the crust and a dollop of Nutella as a topping. They are very good and very easy. So that is to eat. We might order tea or cokes in the coffee shop we go to meet, but might just use water as usual.

I then dug out my store of greeting cards. This is not an English speaking country. One needs to bring these with you, if you want to greet in English. I have some interesting Chinese ones, but I am not completely sure what greeting I am giving. I do have some other interesting cards, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. I finally found an empty greeting card with a verse, so I will write my own birthday greeting.

Then as an extra special treat, I had Rick help me dig out my stash of party napkins. Napkins are not really native to this culture, either. If we are given napkins in restaurants, we usually stuff the spares in our pockets to take home and use. There are pop-up packages sold which double as napkins and toilet paper, but they are very plain. Sometimes we also have bigger pieces which double as paper towels and toilet paper. However, our admin people who visit us 3 times a year often bring us pretty seasonal napkins. This is a very thoughtful gift which you have to have lived here to know that they would be appreciated. I thought I had some birthday napkins, but no; I have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, but no birthday. However, I will take some nice fall napkins.

Have I sufficiently explained how complicated a simple birthday celebration overseas can be? And this is a first world country with more commercially produced items. I have memories of trying to put together birthday celebrations in Africa, Asia, etc. Just saying.